2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying

I do agree on some points here, such as the meaningless of minnows playing the top teams. I would have liked to see similiar system as used for AFC 2004 when there was a preliminary round with three teams in one group hosted by one team. The winners would progress to group stage then.
For 2010 I thought it was unfair that only some winners had to play a second round of playoff, purely based on old rankings.

 

I accept that. That is exactly why I don't want five teams handed byes, it is the same reason FIFA stipulated that the holders of the World Cup would have to play qualifiers after the 2002 World Cup. So everybody else has to earn it but five teams get to rest on their laurels? And let's not delude ourselves Asian representatives at the World Cup have been less than stellar, you guys don't deserve squat. If FIFA let's us have our 4.5 spots back after the 2010 World Cup it would be a near miracle.

If you want to whittle away the worst teams with preliminaries then fine but to whittle away 26 teams while the big five just sit there and watch is unheard of. I'd be fine if the AFC decided to whittle away the bottom 6-10 by having 12-20 teams enter a playoff and playing qualifiers much like CONCACAF does. (Palestine would be participating in any preliminary scenario I guarantee you since we have managed to slip from 18th in Asia to 38th in two years!).

The issues I have with the 2010 format are:
-The favoritism shown to big 5 over other teams for absolutely no reason (Bahrain and North Korea proved better than Saudi and Iran).
-After the draw Bhutan and Guam dropped out granting Kuwait and Indonesia a bye.
-There is some competition that can be fostered by having group games. In 2006 South Korea drew with the Maldives, Palestine with Iraq, Jordan beat Iran, North Korea qualified for the second round...

 

I don't have a problem with not seeding the top 5 to the 1st group stage, but I think it doesn't really make a difference either way and only makes it harder for the 5 countries that draw them in the preliminary rounds.
As for Bahrain and DPRK proving better -- yes, and if this format is followed for 2014 that is why they will then be in that situation instead of KSA and Iran who will have to go through the preliminary rounds.
It would be better if the prelims could be done as another group stage, but I don't think the FIFA dates exist to make that possible. Just like it would be nice to make the final 10 into 1 group instead of 2 groups of 5.
As for AFC letting themselves down. Nobody thinks they are UEFA or CONMEBOL, and they've been just as succesful as the other non-powerhouse Confeds like CONCACAF and CAF. I'm fine with letting 0.5 slot go and having an even 4 spots.

 

Personally I think New Zealand should have to join the 3rd round group stage. Beating up on Oceania isn't any more impressive than rounds 1 and 2 of AFC Qualifying. If they want to go through AFC WCQs, they should have to go through them like the rest of us.
It also creates technicalities, how do you get 9 countries out of group stages without pulling some lame UEFA "the 4 best second place teams disregarding the results against the worst team in the group" bs?
Getting 10 is a lot easier.

 

The other option is having 12 in the final round. It just means instead of a bye or a friendly, you would have a WCQ game. No extra FIFA dates required.

 

But then where do you get 11 countries from? It's right back to the "best 2nd place xx teams" deal.
Or are you suggesting including 2 OFC countries on the merit of them defeating countries that probably wouldn't make it past AFCs' 1st round?
I'd rather split 0.5 with them or lose the 0.5 outright and let them try to play in CONMEBOL 10-country group stage.

 

I was suggesting two OFC countries. Two teams progressing from each group stage makes it much more likely we will get the best teams going to the World Cup and I don't want to go away from that. Much like you, I don't think it really matters how OFC teams qualify, and it's possible that we either may not have a playoff at all, or the playoffs will change. If FIFA keep things the same number wise as the last two Cups then you could argue for a CONCACAF/OFC playoff and a CONMEBOL/AFC playoff as we haven't had that combination yet.

 

Allowing the best third place team from Round 3 would be the only way to allow New Zealand into the final round of qualifying. That would mean Syria who finished on 8 points and also accumulated the most points against qualified teams would have taken the 12th spot last time around (not bad, since they were loads better than the UAE).

The other option would be to start off AFC qualifying with 11 groups of four with one winner progressing. But there may not be enough teams entering the competition to do that.

Any other scenario would mean giving the second place team in OFC a spot in the final round. This is a bad idea New Calendonia, a french colony is ranked 139 (a deceptively high ranking) in the world would never be a threat to qualify out of the OFC much less the AFC.

If we are just going to start incorporating the OFC into our qualifying then the idea of splitting up into a West Asian and East Asian division is intriguing, to say the least.

 

Assuming we have 20 matchdays and full participation (46 teams) to work with not including an intercontinental play-off I'd like to see something like this:

Preliminary Phase (2 matchdays):
Two-legged playoff between bottom 20 teams divided into two pots:

Pot A: Hong Kong,Lebanon, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Palestine

Pot B: Philippines, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, Macau, Timor-Leste, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Brunei.

Round One (10 matchdays):

10 Preliminary winners joined by the top 26. Six Groups of 6. Top 6 teams are seeded. Winners progress to final round automatically joined by the best four (or five) second place teams.

Final Round (8-10 matchdays)

Traditional two groups of five format (or six, with OFC winner joining). Top two teams in each group qualify for FIFA World Cup Finals. Third place teams face-off for the final spot.

 

6 groups of 4 - top team qualifies directly, all second place teams in playoff - gives 9 teams. Still I'd rather top 2 from oceania into 3rd round instead of top team into final round.

 

Did you forget that AUS (OFC) played Canada (CONCACAF) in a WCQ playoff? Perhaps you mean that there's not been the latter part of that combination.

 

Of course I haven't forgotten. OFC (well Australia) has played off against every other continent at some stage. I was simply referring to the setup when we have had Asia, OFC, North America and South America all involved in inter continental playoffs at the same time.

 

OK - I admit I don't know much (that's an understatement ) about OFC teams, but really - could the Solomon Islands (or any other team) afford the travel in a group of 5 teams and would they be able to make more than 1 point?

 

I would say Fiji or New Caledonia could. Fiji played away to Indonesia and Taiwan in 1982 qualifiers. In my opinion NZ and winners of Pacific Games could go on to AFC first group round. This setup however would have cancelled OFC Nations Cup.

 

don't forget Tahiti, they just qualified for U-20 World Cup

 

Increase the final round to 12 teams, two groups of 6 (this would not involve extra match days as the team would had a bye in each round for 2010 would play the 6th team instead) and then have the OFC Nations Cup winner qualify for the final group stage of AFCWCQ, and the runner up participate in the third round of AFCWCQ.

The only problem would be advancing 11 teams into the final stage. We could have 5 groups of 4 again with the top two in each qualifying plus the best third placed team - or we could increase the field from 20 to 33 and have 1 team qualify from a group of three (but this could lead to a 'better' nation failing to qualify).

Asia would then be guaranteed 5 spots instead of 4 and a playoff.

 

No such thing as a Guarantee. We need to collectively lift our game if we are to maintain the 4.5 spots.

 

I would say the draw for the first round of the 2014 World Cup Qual will be drawn in Aug10 (after the World Cup 2010).

Again its the knockout first and second round format which we will see a number of upcoming nations miss out to play more competitive games...

 

Is it true, then at least in Asia they have more time to prepare for the 2014 FIFA World Cup by mentally getting their national teams ready to go, by playing in tournaments like the Asian Cup, Challenge Cup, etc. before gearing up to try to qualify for Brazil 2014

 

Ask yourself is it true that Africans have more time to prepare becuase they play in the African Nations Cup.

Ask yourself is it true that Europeans have more time to prepare because they play in the Euro's.

What was the point of your response? Not many nations play in all the tournaments and they are a four year circle for the major Asian Cup, so preperation every four years right?? Funny when the Asian Cup is played one year after the world cup, what preperation is that?

 

any news on New Zealand (or other OFC winner) possibly joining the final asian group phase ?

 

I think its pretty unlikely. OFC would rate their chances higher in a playoff rather than a group.